Rich

I'm taking my wife to Santa Barbara for our anniversary. We're flying in from Michigan and arrive in Orange County on Friday June 21 at 10:30 a.m. We are renting a car to drive up to Santa Barbara. My first thought was to spend that afternoon in Hollywood (e.g., the Walk Of Fame) and drive up to SB late afternoon or evening. But now I'm wondering about traffic. Will we regret not getting out of town earlier?

Also, has anyone ever stayed at the Blue Dolphin Inn in Santa Barbara (not the one in Cambria)? I searched but didn't find any postings for it. Is it a nice place?

x

The question really is will you be trying to go back to orange county from Santa Barbara on Sunday or are you staying longer? Sunday afternoon traffice from SB to points south, absolutely brutal.

AM departure on Friday should be fine.

Rich

We're leaving SB on Monday and spending Monday night in Laguna Beach. Our flight leaves Tuesday early afternoon.

x

get out of l.a. as soon as you can. friday afternoon traffic can be bad. in my opinion, the walk of fame/hollywood is a waste of time. much better spend in sb.

cg

Traffic on Friday anytime after noon is pretty horrible. My commute (45 mins. on a good day) can stretch to 2 hrs. if I don't leave early enough, and that's supposedly against traffic.

You can do the Hollywood walk of fame in about an hour if you just hit the highlights. Park in the ramp at Hollywood and Highland, or head south on Highland and find a meter (if you're more $$$-conscious). The big Hollywood-Highland shopping complex would be a good place to grab lunch. Then head down the street (west) towards the Chinese Theatre, where all the handprints/footprints are. This is the best part, IMHO - the stars on the sidewalk aren't that exciting. From there you can head north on Highland to the 101. If you get out of there before two, it will be slow for a little while but you should miss the worst of it.

Have a great trip!

John

If there are two of you, be sure you utilize the "diamond" lanes whenever possible. We had to drive from Newport Beach to LAX at 8 AM the day before yesterday and it took us 35 min., while the single occupant lanes were crawling or worse for the most part. Note the diamond lanes in So. Cal. only allow you to enter or exit every once in awhile, not at random like in other areas, so you have to plan ahead for your exits in heavy traffic.

Rich

Thanks! This is great info. I appreciate you taking the time.

kevin

Rich, forget about Hollywood. It is dirty and so uninteresting. Head north and enjoy the coastline. Get on Pacific Coast Highway and have lunch in Malibu or at the Harbor in Oxnard or Ventura. From there you have a short drive north to Santa Barbara. Enjoy your stay!

kam

I agree, make use of the HOV lanes and get out of LA as soon as possible. If you're absolutley famished after LA, you could conside a stop at Gladstones 4 FISH on PCH in Malibu. It's very touristy but handy on the route north.Think the cross street is Big Rock Drive, but can't really remember. It's just as you pass Sunset and PCH on the ocean side. Sorry I don't know the Blue Dolphin in SB.

check

Rich and his wife went last weekend, so he probably doesn't need anymore advice.

tom

i live in orange county and drive to LA often. if you are set on going to hollywood what you need to do to get there is take the 405 north to the 605 north. then switch from the 605 north to the 10 west. take the 10 west until you reach the 101 north which you will exit off of to get to hollywood. taking these freeways will maximize the number of carpool lanes you can take to help get through traffic (each of these freeways has a carpool lane except for the 101). this whole trip out to hollywood should take between 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes. and as for leaving hollywood, you really need to start leaving the LA area no laster than 3pm. from 3pm til about 7pm the traffic is terrible in all directions.